Throughout the 60s and 70s American cinema underwent a tonal shift; gone were the days of the sweet sentimentalism of directors like Frank Capra and here was the growing cynicism from people like William Friedkin and Don Siegel. The latter two directors released two highly influential films in the world of Italian cinema – both The French Connection and Dirty Harry respectively. Both of those films showed the world of policing and crime in a gritty and uncompromisingly raw way that many directors hadn’t dared to show before due to their violent and bleak tones. These films would have an everlasting effect on the world of action and thriller cinema.
Also throughout the 70s, there was an incredibly turbulent and dangerous political situation in Italy (which lasted between the 60s and 80s as well). Now referred to as ‘The Years of Lead’, this was an era of intense political violence and social turmoil where extremist groups of both political sides battled it out in the streets of Italy. Also, it was a time of deep-rooted corruption in the Italian government and in its institutions – mainly the police force. A large number of bombings, kidnappings and even assassinations led to this period being one of the most violent periods in European politics of the 20th Century and continues to have a lasting impact on Italy. Influences both from American crime films and the real-world situation around them led directors to make a wave of violent and cruel exploitation films which mostly consisted of Giallo, spaghetti westerns and poliziotteschi (often called Euro crime).
High Crime is one of the first poliziotteschi films to get made and had Enzo G. Castellari (The Inglorious Bastards, Bronx Warriors) at the helm. The film has all the common trappings of a poliziotteschi; two drug smuggling gangs are duking it out, a determined and intensely aggressive cop (played by exploitation legend – Franco Nero) will do anything in his power to stop them, and this all happens against a group of port workers who are striking for better wages. These different plot aspects are weaved pretty naturally into the script and give a genuinely real reflection of the incredibly complex situation which was happening off-camera, the film itself was inspired by the real-life assassination of Luigi Calabresi. As the film goes on the masochistic violence between the cops and crooks continues to escalate.
… after a magnificent shootout scene a snap zoom of the dead body results in a time jump to when Nero’s character is investigating the crime scene. It’s a really effective technique that feels fresh even when watched 50 years later, and it feels reminiscent of the French New Wave.
Whilst the convoluted plot can get a bit hard to follow at times this doesn’t entirely matter, the story is never the strongest element of these films (for which they are very often similar). What makes these films really stand out is the incredibly stylish and formalist approach to violence and spectacle. During the opening ten minutes of the film, there are two chase sequences, one on foot which then leads to an incredible one via car, this all ends in a car bomb being detonated destroying the entire thing and killing 5 people – a small child included. These first scenes really capture the mood that will continue with the film until its end. Like most of the Italian exploitation films of the time, it can be pretty vicious, although it is definitely not as gory as some of the later films in the genre.
Enzo and the cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa make great use of reflections, slow motion and guerilla-style filmmaking to construct some dazzling set pieces that feel both gritty and high-budget at the same time. In conjunction with the cinematography is a really unique editing style that often uses this technique where a very quick zoom in/zoom out shot of a character will result in a time jump; one example is after a magnificent shootout scene a snap zoom of the dead body results in a time jump to when Nero’s character is investigating the crime scene. It’s a really effective technique that feels fresh even when watched 50 years later and it feels reminiscent of the French New Wave. Also aiding the film is a terrific jazz/funk soundtrack by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis which plays underneath many of the action scenes.
Franco Nero (Django) is as good as you’d expect who delivers an incredibly high octane performance that has genuine intensity to it. Alongside him is James Whitmore (Planet of the Apes) plays Nero’s boss and gives a more restrained, but still excellent, performance that helps to balance out the film and stops it from falling into complete insanity. Anyone familiar with the genre will feel right at home with High Crime as it has everything you want from a Euro crime film; an overworked cop slapping people around to get information, a level of brutality rarely seen in action films, the corruption that never seems to stop popping up and a large dose of squib heavy shootouts. For anyone who has never witnessed this sublime genre in exploitation cinema, High Crime is probably one of the best places to get acquainted with it.
However, it is worth mentioning that the version of this film only runs at 92 minutes and seems to have drastically cut off the ending of the film (about 5-10 minutes of footage), removing a fantastic shootout sequence. I couldn’t find any reason why this has been cut off, it seems to be the original BBFC-approved cut. For this reason, alone I would be cautious about picking up this copy but it doesn’t detract from the quality of the film.
HIGH CRIME IS OUT NOW ON STUDIO CANAL CULT CLASSICS BLU-RAY
Autumn’s Archive – High Crime
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